Reassessing balance: News coverage of Donald Trump’s Access Hollywood scandal before and during #metoo

Sexual abuse became an important part of news coverage in the months leading up to Donald Trump’s presidency and continued to dominate news cycles with the emergence of the #metoo movement. Yet, it remains to be seen whether the increasing amount of stories about sexual abuse have actually advanced social justice. We conducted content and textual analyses of newspaper, cable television, and online coverage of the Access Hollywood scandal before and during the #metoo movement (N = 1890) to understand how the journalistic objectivity norm of balance via issue dualism influenced reporting on sexual abuse. Television and right-leaning media had the highest levels of rape myth acceptance in their coverage for both time periods. The use of issue dualism advantaged Trump as Bill Clinton and other prominent accused men shifted focus away from Trump and largely overlooked the women coming forward against Trump. The objectivity norm of balance reduced and politicized this complex issue, as well as gave power to Trump’s retaliation while minimizing the serious accusations that have been brought against him

Mobile masculinities: An investigation of networked masculinities in gay dating apps

This study argues that hegemonic masculinity is still prevalent as well as conciliatory to inclusive masculinity when applied to networked masculinities in homosexual spaces. The authors contend hegemonic masculinity is a macro-level process that informs micro-level processes of inclusive masculinity. Employing a textual analysis of 500 individual profiles in gay dating apps (Scruff, GROWLr, GuySpy and Hornet), findings indicate networked masculinities are informed by the two concepts. A resulting process of “mascing” is created and introduced in this study. Mascing in gay males to reinforces their own masculinity, while also maintaining masculine norms by seeking out masculine partners. The process is a form of policing that reinforces a masculine elite within the gay dating app community

Protecting the Ladies: Benevolent Sexism, Heteronormativity, and Partisanship in Online Discussions of Gender-Neutral Bathrooms

The recent adoption of bathroom bills restricting trans* people’s access to public bathrooms of their choice in the United States has elicited a vigorous public debate invoking benevolent sexism, heteronormativity, and partisanship. This analysis includes 9,764 online comments posted on the 13 most-shared articles or blog posts about trans* bathroom accommodation from September 2015 to September 2016. The common themes in such discussions were arguments promoting benevolent sexism, including that women and girls need protection by men and from men and that sex differences are natural. Results showed that support for trans* access to public bathrooms was most prevalent in discussions on left-leaning sites, whereas opposition was most prevalent in discussions on right-leaning sites. Most, but not all, benevolent-sexism themes were prevalent in comments on right-leaning sites. The results are discussed in the context of their theoretical implications for the literature of benevolent sexism and heteronormativity

The contextualization of the watchdog and civic journalistic roles: Reevaluating journalistic role performance in U.S. newspapers

This study examines the two dominant U.S. journalism models-the watchdog and civic-oriented professional performance-in the aftermath of the economic crises. The study, based on a content analysis of 1,421 news stories published by five national U.S. dailies, measures journalists' role conception through a content analysis of newspaper articles, examining the concept of journalistic role performance. The findings indicate different contextualizations of the two roles: The civic journalism performance was mostly found in stories dealing with issues such as human rights, demonstrations, and religion. The watchdog model was found in stories dealing with religion as well, but was found more frequently than the civic model in stories covering the government, police and crime. While the overall results indicate shifting roles of journalists toward a more civic approach, the traditional watchdog role remains important in covering politics. The roles journalists perform and their implications for U.S. news coverage are discussed

Working Memory and Response Inhibition as One Integral Phenotype of Adult ADHD? A Behavioral and Imaging Correlational Investigation

Objective: It is an open question whether working memory (WM) and response inhibition (RI) constitute one integral phenotype in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Method: The authors investigated 45 adult ADHD patients and 41 controls comparable for age, gender, intelligence, and education during a letter n-back and a stop-signal task, and measured prefrontal oxygenation by means of functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Results: The authors replicated behavioral and cortical activation deficits in patients compared with controls for both tasks and also for performance in both control conditions. In the patient group, 2-back performance was correlated with stop-signal reaction time. This correlation did not seem to be specific for WM and RI as 1-back performance was correlated with go reaction time. No significant correlations of prefrontal oxygenation between WM and RI were found. Conclusion: The authors' findings do not support the hypothesis of WM and RI representing one integral phenotype of ADHD mediated by the prefrontal cortex

Working Memory and Response Inhibition as One Integral Phenotype of Adult ADHD? A Behavioral and Imaging Correlational Investigation

Objective: It is an open question whether working memory (WM) and response inhibition (RI) constitute one integral phenotype in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Method: The authors investigated 45 adult ADHD patients and 41 controls comparable for age, gender, intelligence, and education during a letter n-back and a stop-signal task, and measured prefrontal oxygenation by means of functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Results: The authors replicated behavioral and cortical activation deficits in patients compared with controls for both tasks and also for performance in both control conditions. In the patient group, 2-back performance was correlated with stop-signal reaction time. This correlation did not seem to be specific for WM and RI as 1-back performance was correlated with go reaction time. No significant correlations of prefrontal oxygenation between WM and RI were found. Conclusion: The authors' findings do not support the hypothesis of WM and RI representing one integral phenotype of ADHD mediated by the prefrontal cortex

Leaving the Past (Self) Behind: Non-Reporting Rape Survivors' Narratives of Self and Action

Using a symbolic interactionist framework, this study considers the narratives of non-reporting rape survivors. We use interviews to examine the complex processes that inform a survivor’s decision not to report. Rape is not interpreted as an isolated event; it is something that is seen as caused by, connected to, and affecting the survivor’s sense of self and agency. Rape forces the survivor to reconstruct a sense of agency in the aftermath of the traumatic attack. Rather than report the rape, the survivors constructed narratives that direct blame and accountability toward the “old self”. This less visible, yet still agentic strategy, allows the survivors to regain a sense of agency and control. As a result, a more positive, optimistic self can be constructed, while pursuing legal justice would force them to reenact an “old” self that cannot be disentangled from the rape